Over the past ten to twenty years, the availability of open boat dock space has risen to a premium. Virtually all harbors and their potential customers have the same problem, namely, a long waiting list for moorings. In many instances, the actual wait time is as long as a person's lifetime. Floating docks that attached to fixed docks or otherwise to the shoreline to increase the length of fixed docks are known and widely used in the art. Examples of such floating docks are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,325 to Gerber; U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,464 to Long; U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,542 to Obrock et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,945 B1 to Passen et al. However, none of these floating docks are adapted for offshore locations.
Prior to now, previous attempts to use offshore devices to resolve the space problems associated with crowded harbors are largely unsuccessful, particularly for harbors that have a lot of traffic or are located on a narrow waterway. One type of such device is little more than a permanent anchor located offshore with a balloon or buoy attached such as the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,554 B2 to Walker. The limitations and value of such devices are known, as are the additional problems they cause in the process. Furthermore, since only one boat can be moored to such devices, the maximum safe mooring density is quite low.
A few devices for mooring more than one boat offshore at a time are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,633 to Loverich et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,784 to Lacy; U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,453 to Hallsten; U.S. Pat. No. 4,067,285 to Jones et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,588 to Atlas; U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,178 to Trautwein; U.S. Pat. No. 3,041,639 to Atlas; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,899 to Culley. However, each one of these offshore devices has inherent problems. Loverich's device is basically a tautline strung offshore, that is held in a fixed position along its length by an anchor assembly at each end, to which boats are tied to along both sides of the line. Although Loverich's line potentially could provide for temporary offshore mooring, Loverich's offshore line does not provide sufficient means for protecting the boats from damaged caused by adjacently moored boats or from rough or varying water activity. Lacy's offshore device has similar problems and is somewhat impractical. Lacy's device would be expensive to make and install at least because it utilizes blocks of cement weighing two tons each as anchors. The devices of Hallsten, Jones et al., Atlas, Trautwein, and Culley are all somewhat complex and expensive to make. More importantly, the devices and the boats moored to the devices are subject to damage associated with varying weather and current conditions because they are anchored in a fixed directional position.